


Crown of Demons

by Catheeso



Category: Crown of Demons
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:07:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27362455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catheeso/pseuds/Catheeso
Summary: here’s the chapters cause google docs is untrustworthy
Kudos: 2





	1. Prologue

The night was a cold one. It was a cloudless sky and the full moon hung brightly in the sky, the stars twinkling beside it. A chilly breeze blew every once in a while, the wind ruffling the leaves that barely clung to the branches of the dead trees. The heavy air of autumn prevalent this late in the season.

A human walked quickly through the forest, dead leaves crunching under their feet. They walked with a certain hurriedness, like they were going somewhere and they were late. Moonlight flickered through the pale branches of the trees, casting light on the forest floor. 

The dirty pathway gave way to a clearing. In the middle stood a tall dead tree that had existed for many years, longer than the human had been alive. It was devoid of any shrubbery, the roots of the tree sticking out of the dirt. 

Next to the tree stood a figure, clearly inhuman. They had a certain air around them, not even light making them distinguishable from the shadows the dead tree cast. As the human carefully walked closer, the inhuman waved their hand, the shadows lifting. 

“You came,” the inhuman greeted with a simple nod.

“I did. Is the offer still open?” the human asked nervously, playing with their dark cloak. “I know better than to make reckless deals with demons.”

The demon considered the person in front of them. “Isn’t it reckless to be meeting with me right now, Chloe?”

“Depends. Are you going to kill me?” 

“No one knows you are here,” the demon said, sweeping his arms and gesturing to the clearing. The dead tree creaked ominously. 

“And yet, you have not raised a clawed hand to my throat,” Chloe replied easily. 

The demon gazed at the human with an unreadable expression, his golden eyes narrowed ever so slightly. Chloe shifted, staring into his eyes in a clear challenge. 

“Very well,” the demon smiled, holding out his hand. “The offer is still open.”

“And if I shake your hand, I’ll become what I want to be? What’s the drawback?” Chloe asked suspiciously.

“There is one, but it’s not that big. I’m sure you won’t even notice it,” the demon purred. 

Chloe raised her hand, but hesitated. She had heard many tales of demons tricking humans, giving them something they had not asked for. But she trusted the other. He had been there when others had not. She pushed away the thoughts of uncertainty and shook his hand. 

The demon grinned as a black light surrounded the human. Her hair became shorter, her body changing along with it. Horns sprouted out of her skull as a spade-tipped tail formed from her back. She floated slightly off the ground as the transformation continued.

When it was done, she - no,  _ he _ \- landed on his knees, breathing heavily. He blinked in surprise at his normal hands that were now clawed, bringing them up to examine them. He felt his horns and looked behind himself to see a tail. He whirled around to face the other demon.

“You tricked me!” he shouted in anger. “You promised that there would be no drawbacks! Look at me now, I’m a filthy demon!” 

“I promised nothing,” the demon sneered. “I simply said the truth.”

“The truth?” Chloe spat. “You stealing my soul was not part of the deal! You liar! You are no more truthful than a blue jay!” 

“You got what you wanted, did you not? I do not see the problem here.”

Chloe roared in fury, leaping at the demon with his new claws. The black-haired demon neatly side-stepped the attack, leaving the other to tumble onto the ground. Chloe sat up, anger blazing in his eyes at the betrayal. 

“Don’t be so petty,” the demon frowned. “Otherwise, I have no choice to kill you.”

“I’d rather die than live like  _ this _ !” Chloe shouted, springing at the demon once more. 

Chloe was not a fighter. He never learned how to fight because he never needed to know how. It was unlady-like to learn how to fight and sparring with any of the dull swords would earn him a slap on the wrist. 

The dam carefully holding back frustrated tears broke, the salty drops falling down his face freely. The demon seemed amused by this. 

“You say it like it’s a bad thing. Soon, you will be in my position. It’s just the way of life,” he said smoothly, almost like he was taunting Chloe. And it certainly felt like he was. Hatred swirled in his chest as his attacks were effortlessly dodged. 

He stopped in a crouch, panting. The other demon looked down on him, an indecipherable expression on his face. It was like he was analyzing Chloe. 

Chloe growled - a noise he had never made before - and swiped at his legs. The demon’s face contorted into a scowl, his eyes darkening as he stepped back. 

“You cannot expect me to treat you as an equal when you act like a petulant five-year-old.”

“I don’t want to be your equal!” he cried. “I want to be  _ human _ !”

“You gave that up when you sold me your soul for your own selfish desire.”

The demon looked away for a split second and Chloe took that as an opportunity to strike. His now clawed hand sunk into the other’s thigh. The demon reared back and hissed, kicking at Chloe and dislodging his claws. 

Before Chloe could properly react, he found himself held up against the dead tree by his throat. He choked, grabbing at the demon’s hand, trying to pry it away. He couldn’t breathe! 

“I- I trusted you!” His voice was hoarse with tears. 

“You were a fool,” the demon said. “And you tried to attack me. I do not have it in my heart to forgive you.”

Chloe felt an odd pleasure at the thought that he had hurt the demon. It was a feeling he had never felt before in terms of hurting someone else. The old guilt was gone, replaced with something akin to triumph.

“Did I hurt you?” Chloe grinned shakily. 

“Perhaps you need some time to think,” the demon replied, ignoring Chloe’s taunt. “A couple hundred years should do wonders for your appreciation, shouldn’t it?”

Chloe sputtered and thrashed in the demon’s grip, his heart tightening at the thought. He knew he should be thinking about his family, about his friends - but he didn’t feel the same way about them he felt only minutes earlier. It was like the connection, his feelings toward them had been cut in half. It was disconnected.

No, what he cared about was the implication of being sealed away for a couple centuries. His body thrummed with the plea to save himself. His instincts screaming at him to get out of there.

_ I don’t wanna die _ , was the thought racing through his head. The last thing he saw was the demon’s smiling face. Oh, how’d he like to kill the bastard. 

A hand slammed into his chest and everything went black.


	2. Bre

Bre shifted her stance, narrowing her eyes at her opponent. Ben grinned lazily back, his grip on his bow loose and one of his hands stuck in his thick winter jacket.

“You could pretend to take this seriously,” Bre complained, adjusting her grip on her sickles. The chain they were connected to lay lax on the ground next to her feet. 

“It’s not like there’s anyone out here supervising us,” Ben shrugged. 

“Blah blah blah, I’m Ben and I’m orange and I hate following the rules,” Bre muttered in a high-pitched mocking voice. Ben threw an arrow at her.

It was just now getting chilly. Of course, here in the mountains, it was almost always cold, but the summer heat was starting to die down. Snow would be coming soon. The leaves had yet to fall but that didn’t mean it wasn’t already fall or almost fall. 

They always had their winter jackets on, though. In the middle of the summer not so much due to the random spikes in temperature their village would get, but when the winds started to blow more fiercely and the resident birds started flying away to not return until the next year, it was always safe to have the winter jackets on hand.

It never seemed to bother Ben. Bre secretly thought that he was a ghost or something considering he was always cold even when it got swelteringly hot, rare up this high but not unheard of. But him being a ghost wouldn’t fit with him actually being orange so that was ruled out. 

Bre couldn’t really say anything about him being a weird colour considering she was literally an elf, but whatever. She’d be damned if that stopped her. She’s petty and she knows it. 

“Shouldn’t somebody be out here?” she asked eventually, pocketing her weapons. It was odd for no one to be out here watching them. Her mom said it was because both of them were a dangerous hazard. 

“You two would set the house on fire if left unsupervised,” her mom once said and Bre really couldn’t argue with that. Ben once almost set the house on fire with their parents there. No amount of adult supervision could snuff out their desire to set things on fire. Even if a god came down and told them to cut it out, they probably wouldn’t. 

“Bre, we’re fifteen. We’re old enough to be out here on our own!” Ben rolled his eyes. “Plus, I told my mom where we were heading. It’s not like they don’t know where we are.”

“I guess,” Bre trailed off, looking in the direction of their village. The two of them liked to climb down the mountain to a small clearing they had discovered a couple years ago. It wasn’t too far down where it would be a hassle to get back up, but far enough down where they could chill out without the noise of the other kids.

They had only started training with their selected weapons two years ago, before the clearing just being a place for them to hang out and maybe occasionally scare tired travelers making their way down the mountain to the main roads. 

Bre always thought that Ben’s choice of a bow and arrow was lame. Not only was it a weapon that could only be used from afar, he had never used anything like it before so he would have to start from scratch. She already knew how to use her sickles from her family’s farm so it wasn’t that much of an issue to learn how to use them as weapons. 

Also, they looked really cool _._ Sue her. 

“What, you worried or something?” asked Ben, walking up to stand next to her. Bre adjusted her jacket and huffed.

“No.”

“Sounds like you’re worried.”

“I’m not.”

“You’re a terrible liar.”

“You’re a terrible friend.”

Ben sighed and stretched his arms like she was tiring him. Like she was the one in the wrong. Okay, so she was _slightly_ worried. It just wasn’t like their parents to leave them alone while they sparred. Even Anaya would sometimes come down and watch them, coaching them on how to find an opponent’s weakness. 

It’s not like Bre appreciated Anaya’s coaching. No, definitely not. She was just irritated that it was taking them so long. 

A squawk of a bird drew her out of her thoughts. She looked up to see a flock of birds flying down the mountain. 

“Huh, that’s weird. Don’t rocky crows normally stay on the mountain?” Ben said, watching the birds swoop overhead. 

“They do,” Bre nodded, turning back to the top of the mountain. She squinted her eyes. “Is that smoke?” 

“Maybe the village started a campfire. It is getting late.” Ben pointed to the currently setting sun. It wasn’t uncommon for the village to start big campfires that make the rocky crows that live there fly down, but that was only on celebration days and with everyone there. Their parents never would’ve never let them go down to clearing on a celebration day. 

“Is it a celebration day?” she asked. “I don’t remember having anything important happen recently. Nothing important enough to start a campfire, anyways.”

“We’ll have to go up and check,” Ben responded, picking up his discarded bow and leaving the clearing. The unspoken idea that the village forgot about the both of them made her shiver and she quickly followed him. 

The trail they normally took up the mountain, while short, was tedious. The only other option were the long winding pathways the village paved into the stone that would take far too long to walk up. Those were reserved for when the travelers had carts and animals they needed to take with them, not for two kids who were probably late to a celebration. 

Bre had cut herself on the jagged stones far too many times. Ben seemed to be immune to the sharp rocks that littered the cliffside, climbing up with scary efficiency. If she didn’t know any better, she would think he had been coming here longer than she had. 

The smell of smoke grew stronger the closer they got. When she looked more closely, her heart clenched in terror. Instead of the normal celebration smoke, which was a variety of vibrant colours, this some was thick and black, coming from multiple parts of the village. She pushed herself up further, trying to fight the strangled feeling in her throat.

“The village,” Ben breathed, steadying himself on the flat stone. They had finally reached the top of the mountain, the smooth pathway next to them, covered in carts that the owners had yet to return to. 

The village’s wall looked the same as it always did, but behind they could see the flames and smoke. They could hear the crackling fire and feel the blistering heat, even from outside. 

Bre stood frozen for a minute, numb. Her whole family. The village. Anaya, her mom, her family. Her dad was supposed to get back in two days. Her mom had pushed her about collecting the harvest earlier to try and make a great dinner for him.

“Mom!” she shouted, running past a stock-still Ben and towards the gates. They were still open, an invitation to travelers and traders to come in and sell goods. Ben made a sound of protest and quickly ran after her.

She slipped inside and immediately flinched back at the sudden wave of heat that washed over her. She looked around wildly. 

Ben grabbed her arm from behind her. “We have to leave! We’ll burn in here!” 

“No! Not without my family! Are you gonna leave everyone to burn?” Bre snapped back, tears streaming down her face. 

Ben flinched away like he had been struck. His eyes flickered between her and the raging fire behind them. He eventually nodded. Hope swelled in her chest but she shoved it down, she needed to think straight. 

They ducked and weaved through the flames, coughing and trying to find their way. There were no bodies on the pavement, nothing except heat and smoke and burnt clutter that she couldn’t make out.

By the time they reached their houses, right next to each other because they were friends and their parents were friends with each other and their families were _alive_ , the houses were nothing but black wood barely holding itself together with only the faintest trace of still-burning flames licking the sides. 

Bre ran into her own home, close to the ground, holding a fist over her mouth as she searched. There was no evidence that anyone had actually lived here. The rooms were empty, only the skeletons of once well-used furniture remaining. But that all changed when she entered the kitchen.

She stumbled back, eyes wide. She coughed and fell to her knees. Bre’s hands hovered uncertainly over her sibling, Anaya trapped under a support beam that had fallen from the ceiling. They didn’t even look alive. 

“Anaya?” she choked, grabbing at a bloodied hand. “Anaya!”

“Breanne?” Her sibling stirred slightly, blinking lazily up at her. Their eyes were cloudy and hazy, like they couldn’t quite recognize Bre or was unsure she was even real. 

“I’m here!” Bre sobbed, pulling their limp hand closer. “I’m here. Wh-what happened? H-how did this-?”

“A demon,” Anaya whispered. “Z-Zaraku. His name was Zaraku. Bre, please, run. R-run.”

Anaya’s hand slowly fell limp and Bre gripped it harder. Anaya couldn’t be dead, they couldn’t be. They were alive and this was all some bad dream and that creaking was just her bed creaking after Oreo jumped on and-

“Bre, snap out of it!” a voice shrieked, shaking her. She jolted and whipped around to find Ben covered in ash with tears in his eyes. He looked like he had been through Hell and back. Could he even see through his dirty glasses?

“We have to leave before the smoke kills us,” Ben said, more serious than she had ever heard him. “C’mon Bre.”

“I can’t leave Anaya!” she cried, resisting his tugs. 

“We have to!” Ben tugged harder, making her trip over her feet. He forcibly pulled her out of the house as she followed after him, feeling as if she wasn’t attached to her body. If Ben wasn’t holding onto her, she surely would’ve floated away by now. 

And Ben, he looked so calm. He looked how she felt. It was all muffled, hazy just like how Anaya’s eyes had been. She could feel the water on her face, she could feel the fire, she could taste the smoke, but it was like there was a wall between her and reality. 

It only hit her full force when Ben had to take a moment to stop and clutch his side as he coughed up a lung. Her lungs also hurt. 

They bolted out of the still-burning town, _their_ still-burning town, past the front gates and down the paveway, stumbling and nearly falling, Ben still having a tight grip on her arm and her hands loose and limp. 

They eventually found the clearing they had been sparring in just hours earlier. Or was it minutes? She had no concept of time now. Everything had shattered, everything was broken beyond repair. 

Her legs felt like jelly, finally giving up on her the same time Ben’s gave out. They both fell onto the grass next to each other, breathing heavily. 

She felt as if she would pass out. Or maybe throw up. Or both. Everything was heavy and yet light. It was an off mix she had never felt before. 

“Did you?” she trailed off, leaving the obvious question hanging in the air. 

“I didn’t find anybody,” Ben replied softly, his voice broken. “I looked, but I didn’t find anybody.”

“Someone named Zaraku did this. A demon.”

“Demons are rare in the mountains.” Ben’s words were cut off by harsh coughs. 

An invisible pressure pressed down on her throat. “That’s what Anaya said.”

“And you could only find Anaya?”

Bre covered her eyes with her arm. Her other arm rested near her side as she rubbed her thumb over her sickles comfortingly. Her mom had given them to her. Her mom. Ben’s hand was still on her arm. 

She sucked in a breath. 

Then broke down.


	3. Ben

When they returned to the town, a day later and thoroughly disheartened, they found nothing but ash. Bre made a strangled sound at seeing the village again. Ben found himself staring blankly at the houses where his family and friends used to live. He didn’t know how to describe it, but it felt odd that the houses were empty, that they were crumbling and lopsided when just a couple days ago he had seen Mr. Willson tending to his flowers and Mrs. Harris adjusting the shingles on her roof. 

He watched out of the corner of his eye as Bre hesitantly took a shaking step towards one of the houses before practically sprinting inside. Ben waited patiently for her, uncertain if she would find anything. They didn’t yesterday, anyways. It was like the entire village had been abandoned before the fire started. Maybe they had gotten away? 

Sure enough, Bre came out moments later with her shoulders slumped. “There’s no one here,” she said. 

“No bodies?”

“None that I can find. Do you think that maybe everyone escaped?”

Ben’s throat tightened at the implications. If they had escaped, that means his mom and dad might still be alive. Maggie might still be alive. But then, what about Anaya? Bre’s mom would never have left them. Right? And what about him and Bre? It was all so confusing. 

“I think we should keep looking,” he said. “Just in case.”

Bre nodded and walked further into the village, walking along the pathways they were both so familiar with. He chose to stick to the outskirts, tracing along the big wall surrounding the village, looking for any hint of life. Even the animals that were kept in the pens seemingly vanished. It didn’t make sense if everybody was fleeing to take the animals. 

The grass was blackened, singed and messed up like someone had gone around in a circle and trampled on it. Smoke still hung heavily in the air, not as potent as yesterday but still there. Ben would be surprised if neither of them had any damage done to their lungs. 

Their whole life, up in flames. All because a demon named Zaraku took it upon himself to burn a random village to the ground. He kicked at the ground in frustration. 

How could someone hold so much power? What gave him the right to kill innocent people because he decided that the village had to burn? What was the purpose of this? Was it because the demon wanted to make an example, or did he wanna scare them into backing down? Was this all just one big taunt to someone else, directed at someone who wasn’t them? ‘Look what I can do’? 

He stopped short and took a deep breath, digging his fingernails into his palms to try and calm himself. He couldn’t lose his grip on reality. Not when Bre was slipping. 

Ben had known her for a long time, but he had never seen her like this. It was like she was a completely different person. He had seen her grieve before, but never like this. Last night she had sat silently, her eyes gazing far into the distance. In her defense, he wasn’t much better, feeling sick at the sight of the campfire they had built to keep warm. He had turned away and closed his eyes, trying to ignore the heat on his back and Bre’s vacant stare. It was much easier to close his eyes and pretend nothing existed than to confront both the fire and his broken friend. 

He traced along the wooden wall with his fingers, feeling the grooves in the wood and listening to the soft noise it made when he pressed harder. Pulling himself out of  _ those  _ thoughts was like trying to swim in mud. 

Before he could circle again, his foot hit something hard. He looked down and frowned. Something white was sticking out of the ground. He crouched down and looked up across the dirt, seeing a whole area as big as one of their cow pens with loose dirt and unidentifiable scrap sticking out. The ground looked like whatever the scraps were had been hastily covered, or like the dirt was thrown over in anger. Whatever it was, it was sloppy. 

“Bre?” he called out. 

“Yeah?” Bre’s voice echoed softly, obviously a little ways away from him. 

“Come here, I think I found something!”

There was a loud  _ clang  _ followed by thudding footsteps. She was running over. He took the time to carefully scoop away the dirt from the white object. If he didn’t know any better, he would say it looked like a bone. But it couldn’t be, they buried all the dead animals and people outside the village near the foggy part of the forest where it hardly ever snowed. There was no logical reason for a bone being here, especially one this size. Maybe it was some discarded equipment? 

He grabbed the edge and pulled it out fully. His heart dropped to his stomach.

It was a ribcage, broken and torn to pieces. Even worse, it was a human ribcage. He took a second glance at the field, looking more closely at the ‘scraps’. Red and black was scattered across the ground, partially covered by the loose dirt, along with occasional dots of broken up white. 

This wasn’t discarded equipment, this was a graveyard. These were human remains. 

The footsteps got closer before eventually stopping. Bre crouched down next to him, peering over his shoulder at the ribcage in his hands. Based on her lack of reaction, she couldn’t tell what it was. Which was reasonable, he could barely tell what it was at first. She then looked at the field. He could practically hear the gears turning in her head.

“What is this?” she asked, standing up. He made no move to follow her. 

“A graveyard,” he answered grimly. 

Bre scrunched up her nose. “It smells rotten. Was this here before?”

“Breanne, I think this is where everyone else was.”

Bre did a double take before her eyes widened with comprehension. She stumbled back, turning around falling onto her knees, retching. He swallowed back the bile in his own throat. He quickly threw the ribcage away before a spike of guilt flooded him at the thought of throwing someone’s bones so recklessly. 

“What the hell happened?” Bre asked, her voice scratchy as she crawled over to him. “Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“They were torn to bits! What could possibly warrant this?”

“Do you think that maybe he,” he trailed off, leaving the question in the air. Did they eat his village, his family?

“There’s- there’s too much, uh, meat left. And why kill an entire village and then burn it down?” 

Ben frowned, a sudden thought pressing to the front of his mind. He analyzed the graveyard once more and thought about the way the people died, shoving away any connection he ever had to them. If he can push his feelings aside for later, he can think logically and realistically. People were torn apart. 

“Was he looking for something?” he suggested. 

“What?”

“The demon; Zaraku. Was he looking for something? Look at how everybody was killed. This wasn’t regular murder and even if it was, why kill the livestock? I think he was looking for something.”

“What could he have possibly been looking for?” Bre asked incredulously. 

“I dunno,” Ben shrugged, finally standing up. He held out his hand and Bre reluctantly took it. Once they were both standing, he let go and shoved his hands into his winter jacket. It was comforting now. It used to be something practical, something that everyone had, but now, it was something from his parents that he could hold onto, even if they were gone. 

“We should leave,” Bre whispered, holding one of her sickles close to her chest. She seemed to be taking comfort in the item as well. “I can’t stand here any longer.”

Ben nodded and quickly turned around, just like with the fire. If he can’t see it, it can’t hurt him. He walked quickly through the burned down village, tracing the paths that he used to run through with his friends. Now, his only friend left was Bre, who was following slowly behind, casting longing looks over her shoulder as if she thought that if she looked hard and long enough, her parents and sibling would come back. 

That’s something that bothered him, as well. Why was Anaya the only one not torn apart? Were they left as a warning to them? The thought of them being a trap for Bre made an unnatural anger boil in his chest. Zaraku was taunting them, wasn’t he? 

The strong winds that threatened to blow them off the mountain if they so much as stepped the wrong way slowly faltered the further down they went. He stopped at the clearing where they had slept last night. 

“Where should we go?” Bre picked up a piece of firewood they hadn’t used last night. “Is there a neighbouring village that could take us in?”

“And what are the odds that the village is still intact?” 

Bre was silent for a moment. Her shoulders drooped as she looked at Ben with tired eyes. They were the same eyes as last night, but there was a spark in them that he didn’t expect. A spark that told him that Bre had an idea and it didn’t always mean well for him but an idea he was always on board with. For a moment he could pretend that they were about to play a prank on Anaya and definitely get in trouble with their parents. 

“What if,” Bre said slowly, “what if we went and tried to find Zaraku?”

“Find Zaraku?” Ben repeated. “And do what?”

“Kill him.”

Ben stared at her for a long second. “We don’t have any supplies.”

“We’ll buy some.”

“We don’t have any money.”

“Fine, we’ll  _ steal _ some.”

“Hold on just a moment. You want us, two teenagers, to go and kill a demon that not even an entire village could stop with no supplies or supervision.”

“Duh. Ben, what else are we gonna do? Just keep looking for a village that might take us in? This way, at least we have something to do.”

“And that something to do is killing an all-powerful demon,” Ben said flatly. He already knew what his answer was, it wasn’t like there was really any choice, but maybe he could make her squirm for a little while longer. 

“So?” Bre pressed, leaning forward. 

“I don’t know,” he hemmed and hawed. “It’s a hard decision.”

“Ugh, stop playing with me!” Bre groaned. “This isn’t funny!”

“It’s a little funny.”

“Is not!”

Ben snickered and turned away. Bre kept up her facade for a little longer before also bursting into giggles. It felt nice to joke around after everything that had happened, a return to normal. The mood quickly grew sombre once more, but the laughter had not been forgotten. He knew it would be a while until they could laugh like that again, until they could laugh like that more often without the mood quickly spiraling back into sadness. 

“What do you say?” asked Bre, a lot more quietly than before. 

“I think you already know my answer,” he replied. He picked up his bow from where he had left it last night and slung it over his shoulder along with his arrows. He wasn’t going to leave his bow behind for something like this. Bre smiled at him, the usual smirk gone but the triumphant look in her eyes that was oh so common just a couple days ago was still there. It gave him hope that the Bre he used to know, the Bre who could face anything with a cocky attitude was still there and kicking, just covered up by grief right now. 

It’s not like he was unaffected, either. But he could pretend, for now, that everything was fine. This mindset was probably unhealthy but has that ever stopped him before? No, it hasn’t. 

“Where should we go first? We don’t exactly know where he went,” Ben said. 

“Follow the trail of burned villages,” Bre suggested.

“And if we find an intact one?”

“Then we’ll know we’ve gone the wrong way.”

Ben looked up, trying to see their old village from down here. Of course, he couldn’t see anything. 

“What will we do after we’ve killed him?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe we’ll have found somewhere to stay by then. We’ll figure it out after we’ve killed the demon,” Bre shrugged. 

“Wing it? Sounds like our style.”

Bre shoved his shoulder playfully as they started to walk away from the place they had lived their entire lives. It was like an adventure without the fun part. He stole a glance at Bre. Okay, so maybe there was a fun part in here somewhere.


	4. Lara

Red started to flow across the floor of the black abyss. Lara clutched her jewel closer to herself, feeling unnatural panic rise. The darkness surrounded her, choking her, as a deep voice echoed through it, the words indecipherable but the malice inside the voice so clear she could almost feel it. 

Lara took a step back as the blood approached, staining her sandals and dress. Her wings felt heavy and limp like something invisible was pressing down on them. She couldn’t fly away. The blood rose higher and higher until it was at her knees. She struggled against it but the whole world felt slow and her limbs wouldn’t move. 

The malevolent voice disappeared as two new ones appeared, their words still confusing but the quick and snappy tone one she recognized from the times she had traveled to the mountains. They also sounded young. 

She lifted her head as the river of blood raised to her torso, about to choke on it. So much blood, coming from one person. The aura was one of a demon’s even if she couldn’t hear his voice anymore.

The red gurgled wordlessly, trying to rip the jewel out of her grasp. She held her arm high up in the air even as the blood covered her mouth, determined to keep it away.

Just as the blood entered her mouth, she jerked forwards, her eyes snapping open. 

Lara swallowed, covering her lips. The phantom taste of copper still hung heavy on her tongue. She was half-convinced she bit her tongue. She slowly lowered her hand and slumped back, leaning against the tree heavily. She was still on the tree branch she had flown up into to survey the forest. She hadn’t exactly intended to take a nap. 

But she could also tell that wasn’t a normal dream. Ignoring the fact that she couldn’t  _ have  _ dreams, all of the voices were ones she had not recognized but seemed familiar in a weird way. She had definitely heard the demonic voice before. Lara sighed and shook her head. It would do her no good to dwell on a prophetic dream, especially if she had no idea what it meant. Yet. 

The river of blood was unsettling, to say the least. She had experienced prophetic dreams before, the most recent one being the one that had led her to the jewel she currently possesses, but they were rare and usually signified something great or powerful. Sometimes both. The fact that the dream was demonic spelled bad things for her and possibly the two mountain kids she heard. 

Lara carefully slid off the tree branch, landing on the ground softly. She straightened her white dress, the long sleeves covering her hands as she brushed off invisible dirt. All would reveal itself in time, just like with every other dream she’s ever had. There was nothing to do but continue on. 

She crouched down and then leaped up, spreading her wings to catch the wind. Soaring above the trees, she watched the wildlife. Birds sang as she passed by, flying up to join her as animals perked up at the sounds of her wings. Her mere presence had an effect on the normally quiet forest, making it more lively. She had grown used to it by now.

The bird next to her chirped loudly and she blinked in surprise. Two travelers? This deep in the forest? They’re either bad news or terribly lost. She glided lower to the trees, barely brushing the very top of the leaves. 

“What are they doing here?” she asked.

The bird chirped angrily and fluffed out his wings. Looking for something? Interesting. Maybe these travelers were just lost. It wasn’t uncommon. 

The forest she was currently staying in was mostly silent and far away from the towns and villages that lined the forests, near the coasts with bustling trades and many ships. Many of the animals had fled here after the forests they lived in were torn down in order to make room for the populated towns. The animals here didn’t take too kindly to travelers, especially humans. 

Lara moved around a lot. She flew from forest to forest, town to town. She had encountered many different kinds of people and animals in her journeys. Spirits tend to stay in one place, but with the jewel and her natural desire to soar the skies, she had left her home forest and started exploring the world. People fascinated her, as did the different environments people lived in. Deserts, jungles, towns, fields. It was all so much and she wanted to see all of it. 

Voices, muffled at first, steadily grew louder as she followed the bird deeper into the forest. She halted when she heard what they sounded like. 

“We’re lost. Thanks a lot, Ben, your terrible sense of direction is about to get us eaten by monsters in a dreary forest,” a voice complained quite loudly, on the verge of yelling. She  _ knew  _ that voice. It had the same accent as the voices in her dream, the accent of someone who had grown up in mountain villages. The words were quick and sharp, a certain tinge that could only be compared to the cutting rocks where those villages thrived. 

“You’re the one who suggested we cut through the forest in the first place!” another person argued. 

“You should know by now that it’s a terrible idea to listen to me!” the first girl snapped. 

Lara carefully landed on the ground behind them, watching the two argue. One was a girl with short brown hair and elf ears, the other had bright orange skin and curly hair. Both were wearing a thick winter coat that was common the higher you got. Though the exact style they were wearing was unfamiliar to Lara, each village and town having a unique stitching pattern. 

Before the two kids - teenagers, maybe - could continue their quarrel, she stepped in. “Who are you?” she asked. 

Both jumped and whirled around, panic clear on their faces. These two were important enough to warrant a prophetic dream? She narrowed her eyes, it didn’t seem like they were. She had been wrong before, though. 

“Woah!” the girl breathed, eyeing Lara’s wings in amazement.

“Where’d you come from?” the boy shot back. 

“The sky,” Lara deadpanned. “Now, who are you?”

“I’m Bre, this is Ben,” the girl introduced, bowing politely. “Are those wings?”

“They are,” Lara replied, amusement colouring her voice. The two were older than simple kids, maybe fourteen at the least, but no older than eighteen. More importantly, they should not be a part of something as big as her dream and they should not be out here, in this forest. Unfortunately, she knew it was inevitable that they do whatever they need to do, no matter how much she’d like to stop them. Seeing the future could really be upsetting sometimes. “What are you doing in this forest?”

The two exchanged a look she had seen far too many times before. 

“We’re looking for a demon,” Bre said. “His name is Zaraku. Do you know him?”

Ah. This was what they were doing. They were looking for Zaraku, a name she had heard before and would be all too grateful to never hear again. He was the demon she was currently trying to avoid.

“Why do you seek Zaraku?” she asked instead. 

“He burned down our village. We’re looking to return the favour,” said Ben, taking the sleek black bow he had off his shoulder. She, being a hundred-year-old deity, was not threatened by the obvious warning the kid was showing, but she was admittedly curious. What would Zaraku want with a random village? Why would he let two kids go free? 

“Do you work with him?” Bre challenged, taking a step towards her. The earlier awe had vanished, replaced with suspicion. Lara almost applauded their keen senses, picking up on the littlest detail that was misplaced. Even if Lara dodged the question on purpose. 

“Zaraku is a demon,” Lara responded neutrally. “I have no need to work with him. Besides, it would be plenty uncomfortable to work with him after the numerous attempts on my life.”

“Then why bother with us?” asked Bre. “If you have  _ no need  _ to work with anybody, why appear before two mortals?” 

“I said I have no need to work with  _ Zaraku _ . Unlike him, I have no biases towards mortals.” 

“How do we know you’re telling the truth?” Ben put the bow back over his shoulder, but he still had a grip on a small dagger hidden in his back pocket. Cute, if she couldn’t see it. She could, though, so the surprise would be virtually useless. 

“I want him gone just as much as you two do,” Lara said. “Here is my suggestion: head east to where the sun rises. If you have not encountered him yet, then he has probably returned home.”

With two mortals looking for him, Zaraku would’ve stayed behind and slaughtered them, especially if they knew who he was. He couldn’t afford to leave loose strings. The fact that the duo was talking to her and distinctly not six feet under meant that he had returned to the west. One could only wonder what he was doing so far east. She resisted the urge to reach up and grab the jewel reassuringly. Zaraku being so close to her wasn’t frightening, per se, but it was worrying. 

“Why are you helping us?” asked Ben. “Could’ve sworn just a moment ago you wanted us gone.”

A flicker of annoyance passed through her but she shoved it down. It would cause her nothing but trouble to lose her temper at some suspicious kids. Especially if she was fated to help them, as it would seem.

“Zaraku is dangerous.” She chose her words carefully. She couldn’t lose their trust. If things really were fated, it didn’t matter, and the prophetic dream always came true, so she knew that she would be in their lives no matter what she did, but that didn’t always mean everything would go smoothly. If they didn’t trust her, everything would be a lot more difficult. “He is a poison on the world. If you two seek to kill him, then so be it. I choose to help you because I seek to kill him as well.”

“And you don’t wanna get your hands dirty?” Bre asked dryly. 

“I think that a group of well-trained individuals will have a higher chance of success than just me,” Lara said.

“A group?” Ben looked between him and Bre. “There’s only two of us. Three, if you count yourself.”

“I do count myself, but I am also referring to other people. Zaraku has wronged a lot of people and you will find them along your journey. In my opinion, you should let them join if they offer their help,” Lara replied. “What do townsfolk say? Right, ‘the more the merrier’.”

She turned to fly away, but Bre called to her. “Wait! You never told us your name!” 

“It is Lara. If you ever need me, just call me. I will hear you.”

She jumped up and let the wind carry her away from the two mortals. Her wings flapped steadily and she found herself thinking about them. An elf and her companion, off to go kill probably the most powerful demon in the world. What she had said was true, they would encounter many people who have been wronged by the demon. It all depended on how open they were to new people. Their home destroyed and all alone in the world. 

Would they be enough to fight him off? Would they be strong enough to kill him? Of course, if Zaraku was killed there would be a new demon to take his place as the strongest. Would the cycle repeat itself with new people to slay the new overlord, or would Bre and Ben's journey back to kill them? 

She felt sorry for the old ruler, Kaliska. He had been a demon, sure, but nothing like the new king who rules only on fear. Kaliska had been a good ruler, but he was murdered one night along with his human wife. The killer was never caught. 

The half-demon meant to inherit the crown was never found after that night. Many guessed that she had been the one to murder the king and had fled, fearing the consequences of murdering her father. Demons took family murder very seriously. 

The bird from before flew alongside her, singing cheerfully. Whatever Bre and Ben’s fate was, all she knew was she was now part of it.


	5. Bre

“Seems legit, Ben said. We should listen to her, Ben said. I’m an idiot, Ben said,” Bre muttered as they walked through the forest, tripping on bushes and tree roots. The sun beat down harshly on them, making Bre regret even being alive. It wasn’t supposed to be this hot in autumn, but here they were, sweating buckets. They hadn’t even found anything yet! The only important thing to happen was the temperature increasing the more they walked. 

“Stop complaining!” Ben called back. He seemed to be unaffected by the heat and Bre cursed him and his magical temperature regulation silently. 

“I’ll complain until I’m dead!” Bre retorted. 

It had been two weeks since they had seen the spirit called Lara. They were arguing because _someone_ had gotten them lost when she appeared. There was no blinding white light, no mystical music, but it was clear from the very start that she was not human or even mortal. She had an ethereal aspect to her that Bre had personally never seen before. 

Lara seemed trustworthy enough, but Bre still felt the need to be cautious. Spirits weren’t always trying to help. Stories from her childhood had told her that much. Also, what did she want with Zaraku? Why did she want him gone? Why had he attacked her? How in the world did she know where he was?

There were a lot of questions and Lara provided almost no answers. At least they knew her name. 

All they really did know was that east was just beyond this dense forest, along with a big town called Stamford. The idea of beds and actual food sounded heavenly when really all they had been eating was fish and fruit. Not that Bre had anything against fruit, but it got boring eating peaches for breakfast five days in a row. 

They had also been stealing. Morals her mother had taught her told her stealing was wrong, but in this situation there wasn’t much they could do. They had no money and no way to earn money. The best they had done was just exist pathetically and have wandering travellers give them a coin or two. She was half-tempted to stab a traveller who scowled at them and threw a rotten fruit at Ben’s head. She didn’t, though. They made sure to steal everything he had later that night, even if some of it was worthless junk. 

Stopping at a town and selling the stuff they had stolen wielded them basically no money considering they mostly stole food and the occasional trinket. Both things that they couldn’t or wouldn’t sell. The one time they did steal a lot, the mean traveller had nothing worth a lot of money. Kind of hypocritical if you ask her since he didn’t have any money.

“Why did we cut through the forest?” asked Bre. “I’m choking on leaves right now.” As if on cue, her foot slipped under a pile of dead leaves lying on the ground. 

“It’s faster,” Ben shrugged. “We wanna get there by midnight, right?”

“I’m starting to feel like we should’ve just camped tonight and continued on tomorrow.”

Ben didn’t say anything else and Bre took that as the end of the conversation. She knew it would do her no good to complain more and she knew it wouldn’t make her feel any better, but complaining was fun to do sometimes, especially when she was irritated. Ben told her to drop the bad habit but the day she listened to him was the day she cut her hands off. 

“It’s hot.”

“I know.”

“I hate it here.”

“I know.”

“This was a bad idea.”

“You were a bad idea.”

“Would you two shut up!” a new voice shouted. Bre and Ben both jumped as a figure ran out of the trees and skidded to a stop in front of them. “You’re so annoying!”

The speaker was a reddish-brown fox with three tails and a white ball somewhat hidden behind said tails. Weirdest part was her lack of mouth and piercing golden eyes. A kitsune? Bre had heard of them before, but they weren’t exactly common where she had lived. Up in the mountains there are only really crow demons and even then, they aren’t exactly yokai. 

“Are you a fox?” Ben asked, crouching down to be on level with the small vulpine. 

The kitsune looked at Ben like he was stupid. “ _No_ , I’m a kitsune. Have you ever seen a fox with more than one tail?”

“I’ve never seen a fox before. I’ve seen a fox hide from traders, but that’s about it,” offered Bre, sitting down next to Ben. 

“Where are you from? The mountains?” the kitsune mocked.

“Yep!’

The kitsune blinked in surprise. “Oh.”

An uncomfortable silence fell between the three of them, the kitsune still blocking their path. Her stance had become more relaxed, but she still looked the slightest bit miffed. 

“So,” the kitsune started, “what are you doing in my forest?”

“Your forest?” asked Ben, looking around. “All of this belongs to you?”

“It’s belonged to my family for generations. I’m going to inherit it,” the kitsune said, puffing out her chest in pride. There was an uncertainness in her eyes that told an entirely different story. 

“You don’t want the forest, do you?” Bre tilted her head, considering the tiny fox demon. 

“Not really,” the kitsune admitted. 

“Why not? It’s a whole forest!” Ben asked.

“Yeah, but it’s _boring._ Try sitting in the same patch of sunlight for a hundred years. It gets old. Plus the animals here are never fun to play with and no humans come through. I’ll shrivel up and die in this forest!”

“A tad dramatic, but okay.”

Bre tapped her chin in thought. Now this was an interesting situation. Ben looked at her, interest gleaming in his eyes. It was clear he was thinking the same thing.

“What if you came with us?” Bre suggested. “I can promise it won’t be boring.”

“I don’t know your names,” the kitsune said warily. 

“I’m-”

Ben slapped a hand over her mouth and glared at her. “You got to introduce us to Lara. It’s my turn!” He smiled at the kitsune. “I’m Ben. My arch enemy here is Bre. What’s your name?”

“It’s Sydney. I thought you two were friends?” 

“He’s tried to kill me before. Also known as he accidentally gave me moldy bread a couple years ago,” Bre said.

“That was one time!” whined Ben. “Why can’t you let it go?”

“You gave me moldy bread, Ben! Moldy bread! I’m never letting you live it down.”

Sydney snickered in amusement, a curious shine in her eyes. Bre briefly stopped picking on Ben to feel proud of herself. Was this what Lara meant when she told them to make allies? 

“What are you doing so far away from the mountains? Why do you want me to go with you?” Sydney asked. 

“We’re looking for a demon called Zaraku,” Ben replied. “Do you know him?”

Sydney tilted her head. “My parents might. I don’t. Why are you looking for him?”

“He burned down our village,” Bre said softly. “We’re getting revenge.”

“So you’re gonna kill him?”

“Hopefully.”

“Will it be fun? Not boring?” Sydney pushed, her tails wagging. 

Bre and Ben shared a look. “I mean, considering we’re looking to murder a man, I’d say it’ll be interesting,” Ben said. 

“Then I’m in!” Sydney jumped up, practically vibrating. “Anything to get me out of here!” 

Bre kind of admired her quick decision to go out and kill another demon. For her, she was still conflicted on whether she could actually kill somebody, evil or not. Zaraku had ruined her life, he had burned her entire world to the ground looking for something that nobody in her village had. Yet, he had a mind, he was sentient. He moved and breathed and probably looked human. How could she kill someone like that? How could she take his life away? While Ben never said the things she thought out loud, she could tell he thought the same things she did. Saying you’re gonna kill somebody and actually killing that person are two entirely different things. 

Meanwhile, Sydney jumped on board almost instantly. Maybe it was her demonic nature that left her so numb to the killing aspect of this quest, or maybe she just genuinely didn’t care. Bre had never met a demon before, even if Sydney was just a minor fox demon, so she didn’t know how they thought. Were they completely desensitized to murder? 

“You’ll throw your whole life away, including your inheritance, to help us kill a random demon?” Bre asked. 

“I mean, yeah. Unless you changed your mind about letting me come,” Sydney said. 

“We didn’t change our mind,” Ben assured. “We just wanted to make sure you knew what you were getting into. Plus, it’s not like we’re exactly rolling in the money.”

“I don’t think I understand that expression.”

“Ben, you roll in money?” Bre gasped dramatically. “How irresponsible!” 

Her friend glared at her. “You know what I meant.”

“Is that where our money’s gone? You using it for a blanket?” 

“I’m gonna ignore you. You’re terrible and a mistake.”

“I’ll be sure to keep you away from the money from now on!”

“Are you two always like this?” Sydney asked, tilting her head.

“Pretty much,” Ben replied over Bre’s laughter. She could see a ghost of a smile on his face, though. 

Sydney looked between the two of them, her ears perked up in excitement. Bre felt a little apprehensive at the thought of someone else joining their journey when before it had just been her and Ben. Hopefully Sydney wasn’t super closed-minded or mean or something bad. She had no idea what the kitsune’s personality was like except for the fact that apparently she hated boring stuff.

Not the most descriptive personality, but she could work with it. 

An awkward silence fell over them. Should she say something? Before she could fully decide, a puff of light grey smoke appeared over Sydney. Bre yelped and jumped back in surprise, Ben stumbling back as well. 

The smoke cleared and out of it stood a dark-skinned person wearing a kimono. She had dark brown coily hair tied up in a bun with yellow eyes and a grey mask covering her mouth and nose. Fox ears rested on top of her head along with a bushy red tail on her back. 

“Uh, Sydney?” Ben asked, stepping forward hesitantly, like he wasn’t sure the person in front of them was the kitsune that had joined their team. To be honest, Bre wasn’t sure either. 

“Oh, yes? Sorry, I forgot to mention this. I can transform into a human! I figured it would be easier to travel like this,” the human explained. “This _is_ okay, right? I can change back.”

“It’s fine,” Bre quickly assured. “It just surprised us, that’s all.”

“Oh, okay. So, where are we off to next?” 

“Stamford.”

Sydney made a disgusted noise. If she had a tongue, Bre imagined she would’ve stuck it out. “Yuck. Stamford is very smoky. A lot of people.” She looked around. “Also you’re going the wrong way.”

“The wrong way?” Ben groaned. “Which way is the right way?”

The kitsune pointed behind them, slightly left. 

“I told you!” Bre said. “I told you we should’ve taken the path! But _no_ , you knew where you were going, huh, smart guy?” 

“I didn’t see you helping!” Ben argued. 

“At least I didn’t get us lost!”

“Ahem.”

“It was a mistake!”

“It was a mistake last time, too!”

“Ahem!”

“Oh, so any time we mess up, it’s my fault?”

“‘We’ mess up? This is in no way a ‘we’ situation!” 

“Shut up!” Sydney shouted. Bre’s mouth snapped shut. Ben looked similarly stunned, his mouth still open in a soundless retort. The fox yokai was bristling both metaphorically and physically, the red fur on her tail raised in frustration. 

“Finally,” she sighed. “I was going to say that it wasn’t your fault that you got lost in the forest, it’s designed that way.”

“How can a forest be designed?” Bre asked. 

“Not like that,” Sydney said. “Kitsunes are trickster yokai, we do a lot with illusions. The forest we live in kind of adapted to that, it’s able to make its own illusions. The whole forest has been leading you two in circles for the past couple of hours.” She paused and flicked an ear. “It’s why I was so annoyed by you two. I have been hearing both of you argue for hours now.”

“Oh.” Bre looked over to Ben. He shrugged. She shrugged back, hoping to sort of convey how sorry she was for starting an argument with him. Of course, she wasn’t really that sorry, but that’s why she wasn’t saying it out loud. 

“Could you lead us out of the forest?” Ben asked slowly. 

“I’m part of the group now, aren’t I? Why would I leave you two here to waste away?”

“For fun? I’d do that to Ben,” Bre suggested. 

Sydney stared at them with an odd expression, quiet for a moment. Finally, she said, very softly: “What is wrong with you two?”

Bre and Ben simply laughed. 


	6. Sydney

Sydney curled up on the ground, her paws tucked close to her body. Bre and Ben, the two childhood friends, laid close to each other in separate beds. They had offered her the option of getting a three bedroom room at the inn they were staying at, but she had politely declined. It felt too much to ask of them right now - paying extra money for her, that is. The three of them barely had any money anyways, she’d hate for them to have to spend it on an extra bed for her. Not that she understood what money was anyways. Some sort of trading system?

The room was old, barely holding itself up with the musty smell of rust and rotting wood. She wrinkled her nose, pushing her nose deeper into her tails to ward it off. Even Ben had noticed it, and she was pretty sure he didn’t even have a sense of smell considering the stench of the food he bought with their meager savings. 

There was no way she was getting sleep tonight. 

Sleep had already been hard in the unfamiliar surroundings and the equally unfamiliar smells and noises. When they were in Stamford, the factories nearby had been pumping out such loud steam that she had contemplated ditching the group altogether. She hadn’t, of course, but she was happy when they left Stamford. 

Surprisingly to her, there weren’t a lot of towns the further east they went, much less big cities like Stamford. When her parents had told her about villages and humans, they had told her that human settlements were everywhere and very dangerous. But they had been trekking through more forests and valleys than human settlements. 

Maybe her parents had lied to her? Or maybe they meant down in the west, because according to Ben there were a lot of ‘cities’ next to the ocean where traders came from other nations. She hadn’t even known there were other nations. Needless to say, this journey was not going the way she expected so far. 

They had also told her about Zaraku, the demon who burned their village down. They didn’t know much so she didn’t know much. She could swear the name was familiar, though. Had she heard it before? Most likely considering how gossipy her mom was. 

She snapped out of her thoughts by the sound of footsteps. Sydney lifted her head, staring cautiously at the door as the footsteps came closer. This person wasn’t walking, they were running. She carefully stood up, transforming into her human form and smoothing down her kimono. 

“Bre, Ben,” she said, trying to wake them. Ben muttered something in his sleep and turned around. Bre snored. 

“Guys!” she repeated, more loudly this time. 

Ben groaned, “go back to sleep.”

“Uh, there’s someone coming.”

She looked away from the door and at Ben and Bre, who were finally waking up fully. Bre mumbled something under her breath but got up and stretched anyways while Ben grabbed his bow and one of his arrows. The elf pushed the side of her face to the door, listening. 

“Yep, they’re running alright,” she announced, stepping back and getting one of her sickles. “Think it’s bad?”

Sydney chose to remain silent; the question probably wasn’t directed at her. Ben aimed at the door. 

The footsteps grew louder as they got closer and she quickly shifted into a fox, pressing herself in the corner behind the door to ambush the person if she needed to. She didn’t quite know how to fight on the offensive, but her father had taught her how to defend herself. 

The running was soon accompanied by harsh panting and the occasional cut-off sob. Why would they be crying? It didn’t make sense for the attacker to be crying, especially if they hadn’t done anything to this person. Sydney slowly straightened from her crouched position. 

“I don’t think they’re going to attack us,” she said. “They’re crying.”

Ben’s aim faltered slightly. “Crying?” 

She padded lightly towards the door, listening to the running which was almost alarmingly close. The feet skidded to a halt and loud knocking sounded. The knocking was fast and desperate, like the person’s hand was shaking violently. 

“Please! Demon slayers, open up! Please!” the man begged. 

“Um, we’re not demon slayers?” Bre replied, reluctantly opening the door. She was concerned, but more than careful. Sydney somewhat admired her cautiousness. 

The man was relatively young with long blond hair tied in a low ponytail. His clothes were torn up, like he had gotten into a fight and lost, a dark bruise colouring his cheek and tears streaming down his face. Other than that, he seemed otherwise unharmed. 

“Please, you have to help us!” he pleaded. 

“Slow down,” said Ben. “Firstly, we’re not demon slayers. Secondly, what on earth are you talking about? What’s going on?”

“A demon is destroying the village! You have to be able to help!”

“What kind of demon?” Sydney asked. 

“I don’t know. It’s a big wolf with two heads and it’s eating everybody!”

“Well, that’s a new one,” Bre blurted out. Sydney saw Ben shoot her a glare. It wasn’t a new one, at least, not to Sydney. Angry wolf spirits, while uncommon, were not unheard of. Most likely it’s pack had been killed by some hunters and blinded by rage it transformed into a demon. Or it’s pack had abandoned it. Either of the two could make a wolf mad enough for an evil aura to consume them entirely. 

“We can help,” Sydney told the man.

“We can,” Ben confirmed, then did a double-take. “We can?” 

“All we have to do is kill it.”

“That sounds...highly dangerous,” Bre said slowly. She then smiled to herself. “I’m in.”

Ben made a choked noise, spluttering unintelligibly. Bre seemed to take great pleasure in his confusion. The man chose to ignore Ben and sighed in relief. He opened his mouth to say something but the ground shook, making all four of them stumble. 

“What was that?” Bre gasped. 

Sydney’s ears flattened as she heard a surprisingly close growl. It was deep and and rumbled and so very clearly a wolf that it made every instinct scream at her to run very far away. But she kept her feet rooted to the ground. Ben shot a curious glance towards her, but chose to focus on the terrified villager. 

“You’ll help?” the man said. “Thank you so much! This way.”

The man took off down the hallway. “If we don’t get paid, I’m jumping off a cliff,” said Bre before she ran after him. Sydney startled slightly but followed close behind, Ben on her tail both metaphorically and almost physically. 

The growling grew louder until Sydney was sure everyone could hear it, based on Bre’s carefully hidden expression that Sydney could barely tell was fear. They exited the building just in time to see the demon wolf the size of a two-story house slam its paw onto one of the nearby structures, smashing it to bits. The villager made a terrified sound. 

“Does anyone know how to actually kill a demon?” Ben asked, picking up his bow and aiming it at the snarling wolf. It’s other head yipped angrily and the two quickly devolved into what appeared to be an argument. 

“Attack it until it stops moving?” Bre offered. 

“Get its blood,” Sydney said, shifting into her regular form. She made sure to only show one tail, though, to try and confuse the demon. It didn’t seem to be that intelligent considering that it was currently arguing with its other head. She vaguely wondered which head was in charge. “I’ll distract it.”

“Cool plan, bad idea,” replied Ben, who was busy trying to usher away the villager. The man protested quietly but ultimately gave up after one head barked at the other. He fled deeper into town. 

“A brilliant idea, go for it fox,” Bre said. She and Ben ran behind a piece of debris as Sydney bounded over to the demon. 

She needed to distract it, but how? It looked pretty distracted right now. The two heads snapped at each other, not looking like they were planning on calming down anytime soon. One of her paws stepped on a discarded piece of wood, snapping it in half. Both heads shot over to her with narrowed eyes. Well, this already wasn’t going to plan. 

She took a hesitant step to the right, away from Bre and Ben’s hiding place. The heads followed. She took another step. One of the heads - Righty, she called it in her head - sniffed the air but its attention stayed on her. Lefty was practically trained on her. 

Sydney took a step back as she heard shuffling, silently praying that the wolf couldn’t hear the obvious noise. Righty heard and tore his eyes away from her, looking for Bre and Ben, but it stopped when Lefty yapped at it. Righty huffed and turned back to her. 

“ _Scared_?” she challenged in her natural animal voice. It was tinged with a demonic accent that the two heads definitely noticed and she held in a wince. 

“ _Pack_ ,” Lefty growled. “ _Where is pack_? _Must find pack_.”

“ _We do not need pack! We need blood!_ ” Righty growled.

Sydney felt a pang of sympathy for the demon. It’s loyalty to its pack and it’s hurt and bitterness literally tore it apart. It had been abandoned by its packmates and corrupted by demonic energy. Still, it had to die. There was no way for it to continue living, not with it’s mind split apart like this. Plus, it was hurting a lot of people trying to find its pack. 

“ _I know the pack_ ,” she barked, instead of the million other things she wanted to say. Lefty perked up while Righty showed its teeth. The split gave her one advantage, and that was that she knew how to get both head’s attention. In the corner of her eye, she saw Bre and Ben shuffled sideways so they were positioned right behind the wolf demon’s hind leg. 

Sydney took a deep breath and shot a fireball out of her mouth at the floor, making her rocket up. The wolf startled at the same time as Ben and Bre stabbed their weapons into its leg. She twisted gracefully, landing soundlessly on her feet only a couple meters away from her original position. But the attention wasn’t on her anymore, it was on Bre who still had one of her sickles stuck in its leg and Ben who had an arrow coated in blood. 

The kitsune hissed to herself and fired another fireball at the wolf, distracting it long enough for Ben to pull back an arrow. Bre took out her sickle. The wolf twisted around to look at her with both of its heads. Ben let go of the arrow.

The bloodied arrow sunk itself into the chest of the wolf with a loud _thud_ , glowing in red aura from the demon blood. The wolf howled in pain before slumping forwards. It’s head merged into one as it shrank, eventually turning into a bunch of bones that resembled a wolf skeleton. 

Sydney panted as she walked over, the elf and human looking similarly out of breath. 

“That was either terrifying or amazing,” said Bre. “Gimme a second, I haven’t decided yet.” 

“I’ll settle on terrifying,” Sydney responded, flicking her tail as two more grew into existence. It had felt weird to only have one tail. Not like it helped, the wolf had probably sniffed out her scent as soon as it caught sight of her.

“Any reason why we’re staring at bones?” Ben asked, gesturing to the skeleton.

Sydney sniffed them cautiously. “Well, the wolf had been dead for a while. The whole reason it was a demon in the first place was because it’s carcass had been possessed when it had been abandoned by it’s pack.”

Ben crouched down and poked at the skeleton, screwing up his face. “Sad.”

“Kinda,” Bre agreed. “Now, should we look for those villagers?”

“After you tell me what happened here,” a new voice cut in. Sydney jumped and whipped around to see what looked like a human person standing behind them. Except it wasn’t a human person. They were clearly a spirit and a pretty powerful one at that. 

“Oh! Lara, nice to see you,” Bre said. Sydney blinked. This was Lara? 

The two friends had told her about the spirit that had given them guidance. She was a little suspicious at first. The spirit could’ve very well been a demon in disguise, trying to throw them off Zaraku’s trail, but the way they described her and the fact that she had _wings_ made Sydney believe them. An ethereal presence was hard to fake, even for illusion demons such as herself. 

Now, Sydney was suspicious for a totally different reason. Well, not suspicious, more like concerned. How would a powerful spirit react to her chosen humans journeying with a demon? Chosen human and elf, actually. 

Lara’s eyes swept the area before landing on the kitsune. Sydney swallowed as they locked eyes. There was faint surprise, but no anger or hesitance. It was like the spirit didn’t particularly care that she was there. 

“What happened here?” Lara repeated. 

“Demon,” Ben said, nudging one of the wolf bones with his foot as he stood up. 

“Right. Why didn’t you tell me you had an ally?”

“Were we supposed to tell you?” asked Bre, sounding genuinely confused. 

“Why wouldn’t you?”

Bre and Ben shared a look that Sydney couldn’t read. “We just assumed that you appearing was a one-time thing,” Bre admitted. “Kind of like divine intervention because Ben was being an idiot.”

“I am a part of this journey, Breanne,” Lara said. “It will do you no harm to share things with me.” 

“And that’s why you’re never here?” Ben drawled. 

Lara’s blank face broke for a moment as her eyes narrowed ever so slightly, almost like a glare. Sydney shuddered for them. Were they seriously trying to bait a spirit? A spirit that could easily kill all three of them with a wave of her hand? Sydney was seriously starting to rethink this journey. 

“I am not your friend,” Lara told them slowly. “But I am here to help. For example, if you get attacked by a demon.”

“We had it handled, thanks to Sydney.” Bre took a step forward, like she was shielding Sydney from the spirit. Sydney felt oddly touched. Was Bre defending her? That was nice. Well, they were friends now, right? She didn’t exactly know how friends worked. 

“You can not rely on another demon for everything,” said Lara.

“We’re not,” Ben replied evenly. “But it would be better than relying on somebody who’s never here, anyways.”

Lara seemed to consider this for a moment. She then disappeared with a flap of her wings and the trio breathed a sigh of relief. Sydney personally felt as though all the air had left her and she was just now breathing clearly. 

Just as Lara left, the townsfolk came out of their hiding places, looking around like another demon might just pop out and attack them. Sydney quickled transformed into her human form as their group was quickly spotted by. The man before let out a shout of joy and practically skipped over.

“You saved us!” he said, looking like he was on the brink of bursting into tears. She really hoped he didn’t start crying.

The villagers cheered and surrounded them. Their voices overlapped so much that she couldn’t make out anything anyone said, only snippets. 

“Did we just make a terrible mistake?” Ben whispered to her.

She shrugged. 


	7. Ben

Ben had known Bre for a long time. They had grown up in the same village with their houses right next to each other. Their parents were friends and their siblings were friends. So, naturally, they had started hanging out. Bre would throw rocks at his house until he snuck away and ran to the clearing with her. He was pretty sure his mom had known where he had gone, but if she did, she never said so. 

Bre was a lot of things, but predictable was not one of them. He knew her better than he knew himself, but she still managed to surprise him. Certain things would never change, but she seemed determined to at least try and change them. Sometimes she made bad decisions just because she knew that he wouldn’t be expecting it. 

“To keep you on your toes,” she had once said with a smirk after she had jumped off a cliffside. The drop wasn’t that far down so she only got off with a cut or two but he had still been so annoyed he tattled on her to her mom. She was grounded for two weeks and glared at him anytime he saw her. They eventually made up by him giving her some cookies he had baked. 

So, really, he should stop being surprised by the weird things she did. Maybe she did it just to spite him. Seems like something she’d do. 

They had settled in for the night in a clearing after walking for the whole day. Sydney had left to get firewood and Bre left to get food while he unpacked all their things. 

The next town was only a morning's journey away, so they should be able to get there by noon tomorrow. They had run out of food yesterday so Bre was stuck with trying to kill some nearby deer or finding a lot of berries and fruit. The last town they had been to was the one with the demon wolf with two heads. The townsfolk had thanked them profusely and showered them with food and money. Sydney took all of it with a certain humbleness others could only dream of while he and Bre had almost cried. They finally had money! 

Then they spent almost all of it. He made a mental note to not be the one to handle the money because he knew that deep in his bones he was a spender at heart, not a saver. Sydney also wasn’t a saver because she didn’t know what money was. 

Trying to explain capitalism to a kitsune was as painful as one might think would be.

Sydney made it back before Bre. Ben had set up the firewood while the kitsune lighted it. It wasn’t dark yet, but he could tell it would be dark soon. Then, they were just waiting for Bre to get back. And she eventually did. 

The only thing was that she came back with no food and a black bear cub. A _bear cub_. 

Bears were dangerous in the mountains. Rocky bears, as their town had called them, were a pale grey that blended into the mountains. Those bears liked to eat their pets and occasionally a weaker traveler or two. They hung out close to the village walls and numerous times had stumbled onto his and Bre’s clearing. Long story short, nobody in their right mind would ever let down their guard around any bear, even if it wasn’t a rocky bear. His mom told him stories of how rocky bears sometimes eat tiny children and that’s why he should stick close to her and not wander off. 

“Bre,” he said slowly, “why do you have a bear cub in your arms?”

“I found it in a tree,” Bre replied, like that answered anything. Well, it did answer where she found it, but it didn’t answer why she _had_ it. 

“Why do you have a parvursa?” asked Sydney and oh, that’s what it is? 

He had only seen a parvursa once before. It was a celebration day and a traveler had come by with what appeared to be a small bear on his shoulder. Except, it wasn’t a bear, he explained, it was a parvursa. They were bear-like, but not bears. 

Parvursas were small bear-like animals that were mostly black but some were also grey. This one was black. They had pointy ears and a short muzzle, narrow eyes, and a more wolf-like body than normal bears. Also long claws that had both fascinated and terrified him at the time. Apparently, they also had some sort of sixth sense when it came to demons, which might explain why it was looking at Sydney funny. 

“Did you bring back any food?” he asked Bre, who shuffled her feet guiltily. He sighed and turned to Sydney, “Is there a chance you could go get some food? You have the best nose out of all of us.”

Sydney shrugged and set off, following the scent of something only she could smell. Bre carefully crouched down and set the parvursa down. It shook it’s fur and looked around before trotting over to him. Ben sat down. He held up his hand and let it sniff it. 

“Are parvursas friendly? I can’t remember,” he joked as it rubbed it’s head against his hand. The panic of Bre having a bear in her arms had subsided almost completely at the fact that it wasn’t a bear but a different animal entirely. It also calmed him to know that this parvursa was probably an adult already since parvursas didn’t grow to be that big. 

“He seems friendly enough,” Bre answered. 

Ben looked up. “He?”

Bre pointed to it and he looked around and yep, it was definitely a guy. 

“So, you never answered why you brought it back to camp or why you ditched getting food for it,” he said. 

“Having a pet seems good for moral support.” She sat down next to him as the parvursa climbed into his lap. “That guy had one for a pet.”

What was left unsaid was the moral support part. They both knew by now that being on a journey can have some soul-crushing parts. Like the whole reason they set out on this journey to begin with. There was no coming back from that, no out once the journey was over. Once Zaraku was dead, that was it. There would be nothing left to go back to. No home, no family. 

Bre once admitted that she thought her dad was dead, even though he wasn’t in town at the time. She found it hard to believe that he could be the only one left alive when everyone else was gone and found it easier to think that she was the last one left. That she didn’t know what she would do if she ever found her dad alive and well. 

He wasn’t faced with the same situation. Everyone he knew was in that fire, everyone he knew was killed by Zaraku. He couldn’t be faced with that situation because it was impossible. 

Sydney had told them about how she had wanted to run away from her parents for a long time and they had helped her do that. She was close with them, she had explained, and had been looking for an opportunity. In a way, they were all running away from something towards something else. That something else was murder, but hey, what can you do? 

“I thought I was the pet,” Sydney protested, walking up and out of the bushes with an armful of fruit. 

Ben tilted his head, “How’d you get those so fast?”

“They were just around the corner, I think Bre dropped them when she found the parvursa,” Sydney said. She tossed two apples at each of them before settling down and taking a bite of one. “If he’s the pet, what are we gonna name him?”

“Uh, I didn’t think that through,” admitted Bre.

“Do you think we should call you-know-who? She has been bothering us about including her more,” Ben asked. 

“It’s just a pet,” Sydney pointed out. “Do you think she’ll care?”

Both of them shrugged. Sydney considered this for a couple seconds before shrugging as well. Bre took that as a go sign. 

“Lara!” she shouted up at the sky. “Lara! C’mon you feathered rat, we need you!”

There was the sound of a bird’s wings and Lara was suddenly in front of them. The first thing she said was: “I am not a feathered rat.”

“Sure you’re not,” Bre drawled. “Anyways, we’re naming this lil’ guy.”

She stood up, picking up the parvursa, and held him up to Lara. Lara didn’t look impressed by the small animal, but took him out of Bre’s hands anyways. The spirit examined the parvursa. 

“Moon,” she suggested flatly. “Where did you find him?”

“In a tree,” Bre chirped. 

“Uh huh. Are you sure you did not steal him?”

“I found him in a tree, Lara. A tree. Are you sayin’ the tree owned him?”

“He is domesticated.” Lara held up one of his paws. “Look at the brown markings; he was born to be a pet.” Sure enough, the black faded into a dark brown at the legs and at the tips of his ears. Now that Ben thought about it, the traveler’s parvursa had the same markings. 

“That sounds like the opposite of a problem.”

“What about the name Bartholomew?” Sydney asked as she shuffled over, completely ignoring Lara and Bre’s bickering. “Barth for short.”

“Hm, that sounds good,” Ben nodded. “I was thinking Beef.”

“Beef?” Bre laughed, taking the parvursa from Lara’s arms and rushing over to them. “I love that name! Beef!” She held the parvursa eye-level. “Don’t you love it, too?”

The parvrusa didn’t seem to care. 

“We are not naming him Beef,” Lara said, walking over. “That is a terrible name.”

“You’re a terrible name,” Bre shot back. 

“That doesn’t even make sense-”

Ben rolled his eyes and gently took the parvursa from Bre as her and Lara started arguing again. “I think I like the name Bartholomew.”

“Really? Thank you,” Sydney smiled. Or, at least, Ben thought she smiled. Her mouth was covered by a mask he had never seen her take off, but guessing by the tone of her voice, she would be smiling. 

“So it’s decided then, Bartholomew?”

“Well, I don’t think they’re gonna be done arguing anytime soon, so yeah. I did like your name, though.”

“Thank you, I think it’s kinda clever.”

The newly-named Bartholomew sniffed one of Ben’s apples but didn’t seem too interested. Sydney settled next to him, on her knees, watching the parvursa with curiosity. Barth would be a good nickname, even if it did sound somewhat similar to another word.

Ben glanced at the still bickering pair. He honestly wasn’t surprised that Bre started an argument with a powerful spirit, he just expected it to be sooner. Breanne had a nasty stubborn streak and Lara seemed to test that every time she showed up. Of course, Lara probably didn’t even know that she was crossing a line every time she showed up, but her cool and calm facade was just begging to be broken. If jokes couldn’t do it then perhaps making her angry could. Bre didn’t seem to be having much luck, though. 

“How long do you bet they’re gonna be at this?” Sydney asked. 

“Eh, depends on how long it goes until Bre gets bored. So basically, a gamble,” Ben replied. He picked up one of the red apples and took a bite. “You’d be surprised.”

Bartholomew yawned and stretched before walking over to one of the green apples lying on the ground. He pawed at it before opening his mouth and taking the biggest bite Ben’s ever seen. 

Ben dropped both his apple and his jaw. 

“Oh my,” Sydney said as Bartholomew chewed the apple chunk, his cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk. “That was unexpected.”

“He just ate half of that apple! In one bite!” Ben stage-whispered, slightly horrified. “He could take a chunk out of my leg if he wanted to.”

“He probably won’t considering all parvursas are herbivores, but thanks for putting that image in my brain,” Sydney shuddered as Bartholomew took another bite, finishing the apple, core and all. 

Barth looked very pleased with himself. 

Bre came walking over, a playful smile on her face. “Lara left,” she informed them cheerfully. Ben got an idea. He rolled another apple over to Bartholomew who perked up. 

“Wanna see a magic trick?” he asked Bre, trying to keep the glee out of his voice. 

“Sure.”

Bartholomew ate half of the apple. Bre’s face drained of colour. 


End file.
